Maday Productions Streamlines HD Workflow With Sonnet Disk Array

Maday Productions, a Chicago-based video production and design firm, has streamlined its HD post-production workflow with the Sonnet Fusion D800RAID eight-drive desktop SATA storage system. Providing speed, capacity, and security in storing HD content, the 8TB Fusion D800RAID enables Maday editors to focus on their creative work rather than the performance of underlying technology.

"With the D800RAID, it’s almost as though the storage system isn’t there," said Jeremy Garchow, editor at Maday Productions. "We’re not fighting it or getting errors or warnings; it just runs quietly and does its job. The 8TB capacity gives us immediate access to a lot of online projects, and as for speed, it can handle all that we throw at it and more. With Sonnet’s reputation for quality enclosures and the RAID protection provided by the Sonnet RAID controller card, choosing the Fusion D800RAID was a no-brainer for us."

The Fusion D800RAID is designed to meet the demands of HD editing and to deliver the performance required by Maday editors, who typically finish client projects in uncompressed HD up to 1080i. The Sonnet SATA storage solution in operation at Maday for the past 10 months replaced a 1TB Fibre Channel array, giving the company great performance and a needed boost in capacity without the high price tag of comparable Fibre Channel systems.

Maday has already used the system to complete projects for clients including Harley-Davidson, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Wilson, Boys Hope Girls Hope, and GE.

Garchow works with Final Cut Pro on a first-generation, eight-core Mac Pro system, which in turn is connected to the Sonnet storage system. Maday’s Fusion D800RAID is configured for RAID 4 protection, providing 6.37TB of usable capacity and the security of fail-safe protection in the event of a drive failure. With this high storage capacity, editors at Maday can work longer without the need to backup files and clear drive space.

Because many clients work with Maday on an ongoing basis, the ability to maintain projects online for a longer period of time makes it easier to meet client requests for new deliverables.

"When we upgraded from a Power Mac G5 to the eight-core Mac Pro, I looked at a lot of different storage options," added Garchow. "I had been nervous about going with SATA storage because most systems lacked RAID protection, but with the combination of capacity and RAID reliability, the Sonnet solution proved to be the perfect fit."

Maday Productions

Sonnet Technologies, Inc.